In your current system, it’s a big investment to make these changes to begin with. But what happens if – like the skeptics think – your big idea turns out to have unintended consequences? In your current system, that might be such an ugly scenario that you can’t move forward.

But what if your big idea is just what the bottom line needed? In your current system, because of the worry about what it would take to pull the changes, but still reflect and honor them where sold, you and your company may never find out. Another good idea lost before it ever had a chance.

What happens if – like the skeptics think – your big idea turns out to have unintended consequences?

Enter PolicyWriter and Grandfathering. First, making those changes to begin with is a snap. You can even prototype them easily early in the idea/design phase so your business community can more quickly settle on the exact change needed – including how it would look to end users and integrated systems. Then PolicyWriter allows you to easily configure “rollout” of the new big idea. So far so good.

Here’s where you really put the skeptics at ease though: If the changes don’t pan out the way anticipated, Grandfathering in PolicyWriter allows you to easily designate – all via configuration – that the particular new option, coverage or endorsement should be honored and remain on the policies where already sold yet no longer be offered for new policies or for existing policies that don’t already have it.

So let the good ideas roll! Take advantage of the PolicyWriter Challenge to see how fast your big ideas can become a reality.

“We find that this forum gives us a unique opportunity to display our products while allowing us to network with industry leaders and gain insights to the business needs of P&C carriers. We are looking forward to another successful conference and are happy to be exhibiting at the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum for the third consecutive year,” said Laura Ford, VP of Product Development at Adaptik Corporation.

Adaptik, the providers of the adaptive policy administration suite PolicyWriter, will be located in booth 732. Their experienced P&C insurance professionals will be in attendance to discuss your P&C policy administration needs and will preview live demos of PolicyWriter at the Adaptik booth.

For more information on Adaptik and their offerings please visit www.adaptik.com. To register as an attendee for the ACORD LOMA Insurance Systems Forum click here.

About Adaptik Corporation

Adaptik, the creator of PolicyWriter, develops highly adaptive policy administration software solutions that are designed to rapidly respond to changes in P&C carriers’ regulatory environments, distribution channels, product offerings & technology. We are committed to providing insurers with advanced business functionality while substantially lowering the risks & cost associated with system replacement & maintenance. For additional information on how PolicyWriter can help transform your business visit www.adaptik.com.

But there’s a problem with this approach: The data has to come from somewhere, and too often that burden gets put on the system users. This can create a cumbersome system that agents –the ones often tasked with initial data entry – are reluctant to use. That’s not a very good position to be in; for day-to-day business, it’s preferable to be the first choice, rather than the last one.

A key solution to this conflict is the use of third party data sources like MVRs, NCCI loss information, CLUE, etc in real time or near real time. This is facilitated by the use of a platform with an open architecture, like PolicyWriter, making it easy to integrate with external or internal web services. In these systems, the data tends to be more accurate, and the burden of researching and entering information is taken off the user. The user has a better experience and the carrier has better data to use with the current activity as well as all future activities with that customer and risk.

You need a policy administration system end-users want to actually use. A configurable solution like PolicyWriter makes it easy to prototype many different approaches to get there.

Agents typically work inside the confines of their agency management systems, building up data needed to manage their book of business. Much of this information is left behind when the user needs to enter it manually. However, It is also possible to leverage this data by utilizing uploading capabilities to create new quotes. This is another area where using a policy administration system like PolicyWriter is beneficial because it is designed to facilitate the creation of policies through the rapid upload of data from other systems. This data can then be scrubbed using the carrier rules, leveraging default values in places where the information is missing or falls outside the product definition. All the information is presented back to the user in an easy to view quote summary noting where the data remedies have been done. Everyone is happy: agents get to work from their agency management systems and carriers benefit from more complete data sets

Finally, it is OK to still capture additional information about a risk that might not be available in the data services or the agency management systems but it is especially important to analyze the flow of the system from the end-user’s perspective. You know what you’re looking to get out of it, but what are they looking to get out of it?

• Are the questions being asked at the appropriate time when the user will have the information?
• How will the user interact with the system to provide missing information? Summarized on one page or spread out across all pages?
• What is the ratio of quoted policies to written policies?
• Do you need different views for quotes and policies for your internal and external users?
• Should you have a simple flow that first takes the user to an indication of premium and then presents additional questions to fully underwrite and issue the policy?

Remember: You need a policy administration system end-users want to actually use. A configurable solution like PolicyWriter makes it easy to prototype many different approaches to get there.

Thinking about this “Deadly Sin” takes me back to a conversation with my friend, George Grieve of CastleBay Consulting. Years ago, he told me that, when he reviewed policy administration RFPs that a customer initially developed it was inevitably missing the most important system requirement – the one you haven’t thought of yet. He was right then – and he is still right now.

Policy admin systems for P&C take time to build, and, because of that, they should be designed to last for quite a while. That means it’s inevitable that requirements will shift during the life of the system, as well as during the project. Things change. Opportunities arise. And if an insurance carrier’s system wasn’t architected with change in mind, they’ll be hamstrung in their ability to respond effectively to even the most routine changes. The reality is that a system cannot be designed to contemplate only the needs of today’s product structure.

Policy admin systems for P&C take time to build, and, because of that, they should be designed to last for quite a while.

Let’s take the example of a company creating a system for management liability package for the small business market with the thought that later on they could adjust it to support a management liability product designed for the middle and large end of the market. While they seem on the surface to be similar there are stark differences in terms of the amount of data capture, the business process and distribution channel served that make the implementation of each product very different. If the policy admin system was built inflexibly, applying these product differences becomes a major project – if it’s possible at all. With a flexible, adaptable system – one designed with the assumption that things would change – it’s a matter of simple configuration.

Product specifications and options aren’t the only requirements that change. Distribution methods are constantly evolving and expanding. And inorganic growth through mergers and acquisitions often necessitates adjustments throughout the policy admin system. A system built without these possibilities in mind can cause opportunities to be lost or squandered.

That’s why Adaptik’s PolicyWriter solution was designed to anticipate and embrace product evolution, to allow and support changing structures – even ones that haven’t been thought of yet. And when the time comes for a tweak, it’s configuration – not a full-scale coding effort. Want an example? Take the PolicyWriter Challenge.

PolicyWriter. It’s flexibility. Defined.

John Pettit, President & CEO of Adaptik Corporation, is a featured speaker at this year’s Customer Communication Strategies Forum; his topic will focus on insight-driven policy administration for enhanced customer service and competitive advantage. Other notable speakers in attendance include Craig Le Clair of Forrester Research and Monique Hessling of Zurich. By attending this event you can expect to:

• Discover ways to coordinate content across channels
• Learn how policy admin and rating systems can drive more relevant interactions
• See how analytics can enhance communication

“In today’s increasingly competitive insurance market customers are looking for companies that are easy to do business with and are able to provide products and services that are relevant to their specific needs. P&C solutions must provide carriers with key capabilities that capture and present the appropriate customer information allowing insurers to quickly identify business opportunities and act on them quickly. We are happy to be a part of this growing discussion and look forward presenting at the 2012 Customer Communication Strategies Forum,” said John Pettit.

The 2012 Customer Communication Forum will be held May 1, 2012, in Boston, MA at The Colonnade Hotel and May 3, 2012, in Chicago, IL at the Conrad. Both sessions will be from 8 am to 2 pm and will include breakfast and lunch. To find out more on The 2012 Customer Communication Strategies Forum and to register for this event please click here.

About Adaptik Corporation

Adaptik, the creator of PolicyWriter, develops highly adaptive policy administration software solutions that are designed to rapidly respond to changes in P&C carriers’ regulatory environments, distribution channels, product offerings & technology. We are committed to providing insurers with advanced business functionality while substantially lowering the risks & cost associated with system replacement & maintenance. For additional information on how PolicyWriter can help transform your business visit adaptik.com.

Unfortunately, as a way to control scope, it’s all too common for carriers to focusthe development of an entire policy administration solution on the needs of a core product. The assumption is that focusing on a single product will provide a base understanding for other products and reduce development time. However, as products are added, the problems with this “top-down” approach become apparent.

Wedging new products into unnatural paradigms creates costly inefficiencies for the development team and, in some cases, the end-user.

Wedging new products into unnatural paradigms creates costly inefficiencies for the development team and, in some cases, the end-user. Expensive coding, recoding and testing efforts are often required to provide an intuitive user interface,which prevents the carrier from leveraging the full capabilities afforded by the original design of the solution. Thus the original goal of the whole initiative – architecting a flexible system capable of handling many different products – is out of reach.

By contrast, Adaptik’sPolicyWriter suite approaches policy administration development from the bottom up. We start with theflexibility and adaptability needed for policy administration as a whole – rather than the specific needs of a single product – in mind. Such a broad-based approach makes the addition of products and functionality a simple matter of configuration that can often be accomplished in days or weeks – a far less expensive and time-consuming process.

When a system is architected to handle change – any change – from the very start, carriers gain the latitude to expand quickly and efficiently into new products and lines, without expanding their policy administration development efforts. Don’t believe us? Take the PolicyWriter Challenge.

It’s modern technology. Defined.

But how do you measure adaptability? How do you determine whether an insurance system is truly adaptive?

At Adaptik Corporation, adaptability is a core tenant of our flagship product, PolicyWriter. We know adaptability. In fact, we define adaptability –when it comes to policy admin systems, we even have a patented design. In our view, there are 12 characteristics that all truly adaptive systems must have. Here, we share the second: flexible data architecture. Check back often – the other 10 are coming soon.

When considering a policy administration system, a number one consideration is how well the system represents the specific needs of the system’s users and the carrier’s products. With adaptive systems, the appearance and functionality of a system are varied within hours or days, with little or no programming.

Through configuration, it is possible to introduce whole new web pages and procedures including: placement of elements on a page, conditional processing of those elements and even determining how – and to whom – these elements will be displayed. Other configurable parameters should include:

• Varied web page navigation by product and user role
• Triggers for additional system processing or integration with external systems
• Shared data elements across multiple products

For example, an adaptive system would allow an authorized configuration user to place questions in a particular spot on the desired page. This user would also be able to configure other properties, such as whether the answer is captured via a dropdown or a radio button control and to specify the literal displayed beside the control all on the fly without requiring database or programming changes.

The networking event will be followed by keynote speaker Leonard Brody, a highly respected entrepreneur, venture capitalist, best-selling author and two-time Emmy-nominated media visionary. His presentation, This Monumental Shift—Exploring the Future of Behavior, Technology and Innovation, will address how major technological and behavioral changes over the past 15 years have brought us to what is arguably the most reformative time in history.

“We are proud to be a supporter of the Ben Franklin i xchange program,” said Laura Ford, VP of Product Management. “This event provides an opportunity to meet local entrepreneurs and discuss innovation and technology as well as listen to Mr. Brody discuss technological and behavioral shifts over the last decade. As providers of the next-generation policy administration solution for P&C carriers, we understand how even subtle changes in customer expectations can inspire companies to use technology to innovate and grow their business. We look forward to our continued partnership with Ben Franklin Technology Partners and applaud them for their ongoing support of early-stage technology firms.”

This year’s i xchange will be held Tuesday, May 8, 2012, from 5:30 to 9:30 PM at the Zoellner Arts Center on the main campus of Lehigh University. To find out more about the i xchange event or to register, contact the Ben Franklin Technology Partners at 610-758-5200, ixchange@nep.benfranklin.org or visit http://www.nep.benfranklin.org.

About Adaptik Corporation

Adaptik, the creator of PolicyWriter, develops highly adaptive P&C policy administration software solutions that are designed to improve speed-to-market for new products and scale to support large numbers of users and high transaction volumes. They provide P&C insurers with advanced business functionality while substantially lowering the risks and costs associated with policy administration system replacement and maintenance. For additional information on how PolicyWriter can help transform your insurance business visit http://adaptik.com.

But how do you measure adaptability? How do you determine whether an insurance system is truly adaptive?

At Adaptik Corporation, adaptability is a core tenant of our flagship product, PolicyWriter. We know adaptability. In fact, we define adaptability –when it comes to policy admin systems, we even have a patented design. In our view, there are 12 characteristics that all truly adaptive systems must have. Here, we share the first: flexible data architecture. Check back often – the other 11 are coming soon.

In traditional policy administration systems, data elements correspond to columns in database tables. Therefore, adding or changing a data element means changing the underlying database along with the programs that utilize that item.

The overwhelming advantages of decoupling the data schemas for information content and physical format are well known to all who are familiar with XML.

Adaptive systems avoid this root cause of system rigidity by completely decoupling the data schemas for information content and physical storage and making all information content configurable. This way, new data items can be introduced into the system and related to other data items through a configuration facility within minutes and without the need to make programming or database changes.

The overwhelming advantages of decoupling the data schemas for information content and physical format are well known to all who are familiar with XML – a universal data communication standard. Adaptive systems extend these advantages into data capture, manipulation and storage, and readily provide all policy data in XML format to external systems. As new data items are introduced, they automatically appear in the XML stream without the need for any programming changes.

At Adaptik, we’ve found that many P&C Policy Administration software developers who advertise their products as configurable can’t deliver some of the features their customers want and need. Before you invest in that system, here are a few simple things to check.

What can be done via configuration? Can you …

• add a web page?
• add new fields?
• make those fields apply conditionally?
• add answer options?
• decide which controls to use?
• change font, color and other styling attributes conditionally?
• position everything on the page with WYSIWYG control?
• add conditional error messages?
• add new coverages conditionally?
• retire fields, yet grandfather them such that policies with them keep them? (Don’t forget, we’re talking about doing this through configuration, not wholescale coding changes.)
• do similar grandfathering for coverages, forms and other aspects of your product?
• set up calls to web services, including defining the fields that should be included in interface to that service?
• create sets of rules to run on-demand, such as at page load or submit, at change of a field value or even simply on-demand?
• add a brand new product or program – and the rules to support it?
• control navigation, pages available or any other characteristic by user type and privileges?

Everything listed above can be accomplished – via configuration – in PolicyWriter’s web-based Product Designer component.

In many of our insurance software demonstrations, recipients have been stunned by the things we’ve been able to do through configuration right in front of them. No smoke. No mirrors. No builds. No DBAs. How does the other policy administration system you’re considering measure up?

1. Who at the insurance carrier can do the configuration? Does it take someone with programming experience? Can a business analyst do it?

With PolicyWriter, insurance carrier business users with an analytical mindset – but no programming experience – can do the lion’s share of configuration. If the other “configurable” insurance software solution you’re considering needs programmers to do the configuration … isn’t that just another form of coding? You might be missing out on savings, and you’ll certainly be retaining the same “spec translation” issue that plagues traditional development models.

2. What do you need to do to see the changes? A build? A migration?

Changes made in PolicyWriter’s Product Designer component can be seen immediately in Account Manager, the end-user application. No build. No migration. No wait. In fact, this prototyping feature adds an immense advantage to any sort of agile approach. Subject matter experts can work with a configurator – or even by themselves – to immediately try out, see and adjust configurable aspects. The results can become the specsand ultimately, even the completed design and system.

3. How do you create and modify an interface to another system?

Insurance software systems rarely speak the same “language.” Most P&C policy administration systems, even those that tout themselves as highly configurable, generally have some sort of asterisked exception in this area that is explained in the small print. Generally, it is not configurable at all and, in fact, may need traditional development or some sort of API.

PolicyWriter can’t magically speak the language of every system it may need to interface with. But it does support a flexible interface architecture that allows configuration of the data supplied in an XML interface, as well as configuration of the call to the external system. PolicyWriter does make use of XSL translations or mapping, but that is about as lightweight as you can get.

(Oh, and we recognize that XSL, while generally quite simple, requires some technical skills. We don’t categorize it as configuration … heads up for vendors that do.)

4. Can they show you what they promise? How quickly can you get a product built and functioning?

With PolicyWriter, we can prototype a brand new product – including interfaces – in a very short timeframe. That’s weeks, not months. But don’t take my word for it. Check out our PolicyWriter Challenge – send us a problem or issue you’re having with your current P&C policy administration system and we’ll show you how fast and flexible PolicyWriter really is.